Evaluation
1. In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?
One way in which our media product has used forms and conventions of real media is by having a lead female actress. While the group had to research different film openings we discovered that the female actresses are seen as very vulnerable and weak such as in taken and the others. Our genre was a Horror/ Thriller, the genres themselves are very broad so we decided to bring thee two genres together and create it into a slightly romantic mysterious thriller to make our storyline more unique and individual. We researched a lot of movie clips on our opening and we couldn't find a specific one that related to ours as it was so unique. Throughout filming we made sure the type of actions each character did related back to our genre such as both characters in the first shot are holding hands and throughout the clip trends are picked up that the two have some sort of romantic connection. The male characters role is developed throughout the clip as a forceful, arrogant individual as you can see him dragging his girlfriend around the graveyard. We made sure that his dominance was seen straight away within the clip so the audience could collectively get an idea of the characters personalities. In the film Taken the father played as Liam Neeson is seen as a very dominant male character when action scenes are rolling such as in the final scenes on the yacht when he is fighting the men he is very precise and accurate as a assassin. But EuropaCorp in Taken 2 have slightly switched the roles in the movie between the father and the daughter as you can see in the clip when Liam Neeson is tied up in the little cell and his daughter is being the action-based character. Because of how successful both Taken 1 & 2 were when they were brought into the film industry we wanted to make sure we had the same twist and converted the characters roles within our opening clip. As you can see from this clip Susan is glancing at the shovel which is the main prop that creates the role switching between the two characters so we wanted to make sure this shot was very creative and developed cause it was one of the main scenes of our project.
Moving on to the romance element of our film is seen as very mysterious as you can see from the two characters feelings upon each other, they obviously have some disagreement with each other as you can see from this shot with the make character pushing his wife away from the grave and then following up with him snatching the flowers. This creates almost an idea for the audience on the two characters love-life for each other.
Thriller genre movies always have some sort of crime element to their movies so in our clip we connoted the typical thriller genre and created a murder scene within our opening clip so the target audience, which we collected via survey monkey, could analyse our clip and be able to apply the genres we set out to produce for our movie clip. By challenging real media product conventions the audiences analysis of each character completely changes and generates a twist within the opening clip. Because the clip was focussed on the male and his dominance over the female character when the roles were switched Through a lot of planning we generated the idea of the female character switching roles and becoming the dominant, powerful character rather than the male.
Also after scraping our first idea cause of location purposes we wanted to make sure our mise-en-scene was used very effectively when we generated the idea of using the graveyard as our main location. As you can see from the establishing clips we used our cheap, efficient location effectively and within the first few seconds of our clip the audience already have an idea of the genre we're trying to bring across, by using the soundtrack the audience also established the horror side of the movie.
Within the editing aspect of the movie, in Taken the fighting scenes are very fast-paced and we wanted to apply that to our clip so when the female character hits her husband with a shovel, he dragging seems as you can see are quite fast paced which are the typical conventions of a action based genre movie
One way in which our media product has used forms and conventions of real media is by having a lead female actress. While the group had to research different film openings we discovered that the female actresses are seen as very vulnerable and weak such as in taken and the others. Our genre was a Horror/ Thriller, the genres themselves are very broad so we decided to bring thee two genres together and create it into a slightly romantic mysterious thriller to make our storyline more unique and individual. We researched a lot of movie clips on our opening and we couldn't find a specific one that related to ours as it was so unique. Throughout filming we made sure the type of actions each character did related back to our genre such as both characters in the first shot are holding hands and throughout the clip trends are picked up that the two have some sort of romantic connection. The male characters role is developed throughout the clip as a forceful, arrogant individual as you can see him dragging his girlfriend around the graveyard. We made sure that his dominance was seen straight away within the clip so the audience could collectively get an idea of the characters personalities. In the film Taken the father played as Liam Neeson is seen as a very dominant male character when action scenes are rolling such as in the final scenes on the yacht when he is fighting the men he is very precise and accurate as a assassin. But EuropaCorp in Taken 2 have slightly switched the roles in the movie between the father and the daughter as you can see in the clip when Liam Neeson is tied up in the little cell and his daughter is being the action-based character. Because of how successful both Taken 1 & 2 were when they were brought into the film industry we wanted to make sure we had the same twist and converted the characters roles within our opening clip. As you can see from this clip Susan is glancing at the shovel which is the main prop that creates the role switching between the two characters so we wanted to make sure this shot was very creative and developed cause it was one of the main scenes of our project.
Moving on to the romance element of our film is seen as very mysterious as you can see from the two characters feelings upon each other, they obviously have some disagreement with each other as you can see from this shot with the make character pushing his wife away from the grave and then following up with him snatching the flowers. This creates almost an idea for the audience on the two characters love-life for each other.
Thriller genre movies always have some sort of crime element to their movies so in our clip we connoted the typical thriller genre and created a murder scene within our opening clip so the target audience, which we collected via survey monkey, could analyse our clip and be able to apply the genres we set out to produce for our movie clip. By challenging real media product conventions the audiences analysis of each character completely changes and generates a twist within the opening clip. Because the clip was focussed on the male and his dominance over the female character when the roles were switched Through a lot of planning we generated the idea of the female character switching roles and becoming the dominant, powerful character rather than the male.
Also after scraping our first idea cause of location purposes we wanted to make sure our mise-en-scene was used very effectively when we generated the idea of using the graveyard as our main location. As you can see from the establishing clips we used our cheap, efficient location effectively and within the first few seconds of our clip the audience already have an idea of the genre we're trying to bring across, by using the soundtrack the audience also established the horror side of the movie.
Within the editing aspect of the movie, in Taken the fighting scenes are very fast-paced and we wanted to apply that to our clip so when the female character hits her husband with a shovel, he dragging seems as you can see are quite fast paced which are the typical conventions of a action based genre movie
2. How does your media product represent particular social groups?
One social group our group represented were females. Our film opening at the beginning showed females to be weak as she was pulled and dragged by a male character but towards the end the role switched and the female character seemed to dominate the male character. However, our character is not an average women so it would be hard to say that our film opening represented women in this particular way. Another way that our group represented a particular social group were men. We have represented men in a subversive way. Normally men would be the one's telling the women what to do and womens would be the ones relying on the men. However our media product shows us that men are reliant on women and believe women are key essential to solving problems and resolving issues. This then makes men seem less powerful and this represents women being more important than men. Also our characters both support and challenge the typical stereotypes of particular social groups created by previous, popular horror/thriller films. Even though more recently actresses and other ethnicities have taken lead roles in action movies, there is still a white male dominance in the view of heroic characters and there is still a perception of women being “damsels in distress” or just the hero’s love interest. We have challenged these stereotypes by using an oriental female as our lead actress.
One social group our group represented were females. Our film opening at the beginning showed females to be weak as she was pulled and dragged by a male character but towards the end the role switched and the female character seemed to dominate the male character. However, our character is not an average women so it would be hard to say that our film opening represented women in this particular way. Another way that our group represented a particular social group were men. We have represented men in a subversive way. Normally men would be the one's telling the women what to do and womens would be the ones relying on the men. However our media product shows us that men are reliant on women and believe women are key essential to solving problems and resolving issues. This then makes men seem less powerful and this represents women being more important than men. Also our characters both support and challenge the typical stereotypes of particular social groups created by previous, popular horror/thriller films. Even though more recently actresses and other ethnicities have taken lead roles in action movies, there is still a white male dominance in the view of heroic characters and there is still a perception of women being “damsels in distress” or just the hero’s love interest. We have challenged these stereotypes by using an oriental female as our lead actress.
3. What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?
When deciding on who should distribute our film, we as a group came up with lots of distribution companies and we sat down and discussed what distribution company we were gonna use and after a while we decided on Warners Brothers. There are two reasons for choosing Warners brothers and the first reason is that they have a created a lot of films which are slightly similar to ours in terms of genre. We classed our film as thriller and Warners Brother has released many films of that genre. They have distributed films like Gravity, Man of steel, The dark knight rises and sherlock Holmes (a game of shadows). These films contain certain elements that we all have in our film opening that make the genre it is. In thriller movies, usually the antagonist would have a secret or a past that shaped him into taking revenge and we have taken that idea on onboard and created our characters to have that similar effect. The second reason we chose them as our distribution company is because their distribution company made a lot of money and this implies that they are successful distribution company. This was an important point to consider as we also would like to go and be successful. Warners brother was not our choice straightaway so we had to do some research on different distribution companies like 20th century fox. At first we thought 20th century fox would be our distribution company but after some research we decided it wasn't the distribution company for us. If we were to make the whole movie we would like our film to be distributed on a large scale and also it wouldn't be an independent movie as our aim was to market it as a Blockbuster. Another distribution company we looked at was Hammer films. We thought that it may have been our distributor but decided against this one as well. Hammer films distribute films like the women in black, The Curse of Frankenstein, Dracula and The Mummy. Our film however, does not contain any specific aspects such as these and it doesn't deal with certain issues that these independent movies deal with. Our film is more about a simple storyline and does not address issues that these smaller independent movies do.
When deciding on who should distribute our film, we as a group came up with lots of distribution companies and we sat down and discussed what distribution company we were gonna use and after a while we decided on Warners Brothers. There are two reasons for choosing Warners brothers and the first reason is that they have a created a lot of films which are slightly similar to ours in terms of genre. We classed our film as thriller and Warners Brother has released many films of that genre. They have distributed films like Gravity, Man of steel, The dark knight rises and sherlock Holmes (a game of shadows). These films contain certain elements that we all have in our film opening that make the genre it is. In thriller movies, usually the antagonist would have a secret or a past that shaped him into taking revenge and we have taken that idea on onboard and created our characters to have that similar effect. The second reason we chose them as our distribution company is because their distribution company made a lot of money and this implies that they are successful distribution company. This was an important point to consider as we also would like to go and be successful. Warners brother was not our choice straightaway so we had to do some research on different distribution companies like 20th century fox. At first we thought 20th century fox would be our distribution company but after some research we decided it wasn't the distribution company for us. If we were to make the whole movie we would like our film to be distributed on a large scale and also it wouldn't be an independent movie as our aim was to market it as a Blockbuster. Another distribution company we looked at was Hammer films. We thought that it may have been our distributor but decided against this one as well. Hammer films distribute films like the women in black, The Curse of Frankenstein, Dracula and The Mummy. Our film however, does not contain any specific aspects such as these and it doesn't deal with certain issues that these independent movies deal with. Our film is more about a simple storyline and does not address issues that these smaller independent movies do.
4. Who would be the audience for your media product?
The gender for our target audience would consist of both males and females. We conducted a survey online on survey monkey and looking at the results we found out that the thriller genre appeals mostly to people in their late teens, typically from the ages of 17 to 20. From this data we gathered that our movie will be aimed at mainly this age, however we decided that this is not the only age that enjoys this genre and this genre also appeals to the mature audience too, people who are aged between 25-40. Due to this we decided that we would have elements in our movie which would appeal to the older audience too. We decided to keep our movie easy to understand for the slightly younger audience so that they would get a grasp of what the genre is and what the movie is about. We also decided to have two characters which were both male and female so that the movie attracts both male and female audiences. One of the main reasons we used the thriller genre for our movie is that there is no typical genre for this movie, whereas males are usually attracted to action films and sci fi and females are usually attracted to the drama and romance genre. However the thriller genre is suited to both genders which would attract a larger audience to our film. The props we used in the film were not very conventional such as a gun or a knife, instead we used a shovel which we thought would be unconventional and suit the mise en scene and the surrounding that the characters were in.
The gender for our target audience would consist of both males and females. We conducted a survey online on survey monkey and looking at the results we found out that the thriller genre appeals mostly to people in their late teens, typically from the ages of 17 to 20. From this data we gathered that our movie will be aimed at mainly this age, however we decided that this is not the only age that enjoys this genre and this genre also appeals to the mature audience too, people who are aged between 25-40. Due to this we decided that we would have elements in our movie which would appeal to the older audience too. We decided to keep our movie easy to understand for the slightly younger audience so that they would get a grasp of what the genre is and what the movie is about. We also decided to have two characters which were both male and female so that the movie attracts both male and female audiences. One of the main reasons we used the thriller genre for our movie is that there is no typical genre for this movie, whereas males are usually attracted to action films and sci fi and females are usually attracted to the drama and romance genre. However the thriller genre is suited to both genders which would attract a larger audience to our film. The props we used in the film were not very conventional such as a gun or a knife, instead we used a shovel which we thought would be unconventional and suit the mise en scene and the surrounding that the characters were in.
5. How did you attract/address your audience?
One of the ways in which we attracted our audience to our film was by the location that we used. The location that we used for our film opening was a graveyard, we used this location because the graveyard gives the audience a sense of what the movie will be about as the graveyard represents death and spirits. Another way in which we attracted our audience is by conducting a survey of questions on survey monkey asking the audience to tell us what sort of genres and sub genres they like. We also asked what sort of gender they like in a horror thriller movie, getting the story line right is the most important factor because the story line in the first couple of minutes will either interest the audience or bore them. Keeping this in mind we also asked them if they usually like a lot of suspense in their movie or if they prefer a movie with loud sound effects and a lot of non diegetic sounds. We decided that asking the audience what sort of film opening they like will be the best way to attract the audience because it will be what they prefer the most instead of what we think that they prefer. We added three different soundtracks to the film opening, in the start of the movie with the establishing shots we used very low pitched music with a slow tempo. We used this sort of music for the establishing shots because our mise en scene consisted of a graveyard and spooky slow music would suit it very well and entice the audience giving them a spooky and un nerving feeling. Another way in which we attracted our audience was by using a male and a female character in main roles. This is because having both genders mean that we will attract both male and female target audiences. The males will be interested in the female character and the females will be interested in the male character. Another way in which we attracted our audiences was by our storyline. Our storyline seemed one of a conventional thriller at first with the male being the dominant character however near the end the female is the one who is in control when she attacks the male. We thought that this would interest the audience as they would think it is conventional but then at the end there would be a twist with the female being dominant which would surprise our audience and make them keen to watch the rest of the movie.
One of the ways in which we attracted our audience to our film was by the location that we used. The location that we used for our film opening was a graveyard, we used this location because the graveyard gives the audience a sense of what the movie will be about as the graveyard represents death and spirits. Another way in which we attracted our audience is by conducting a survey of questions on survey monkey asking the audience to tell us what sort of genres and sub genres they like. We also asked what sort of gender they like in a horror thriller movie, getting the story line right is the most important factor because the story line in the first couple of minutes will either interest the audience or bore them. Keeping this in mind we also asked them if they usually like a lot of suspense in their movie or if they prefer a movie with loud sound effects and a lot of non diegetic sounds. We decided that asking the audience what sort of film opening they like will be the best way to attract the audience because it will be what they prefer the most instead of what we think that they prefer. We added three different soundtracks to the film opening, in the start of the movie with the establishing shots we used very low pitched music with a slow tempo. We used this sort of music for the establishing shots because our mise en scene consisted of a graveyard and spooky slow music would suit it very well and entice the audience giving them a spooky and un nerving feeling. Another way in which we attracted our audience was by using a male and a female character in main roles. This is because having both genders mean that we will attract both male and female target audiences. The males will be interested in the female character and the females will be interested in the male character. Another way in which we attracted our audiences was by our storyline. Our storyline seemed one of a conventional thriller at first with the male being the dominant character however near the end the female is the one who is in control when she attacks the male. We thought that this would interest the audience as they would think it is conventional but then at the end there would be a twist with the female being dominant which would surprise our audience and make them keen to watch the rest of the movie.
6. What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product?
During the creation of our media product, a opening sequence, we learnt a great deal about technologies and they helped and improved our media product. Whilst filming the preliminary and other past projects, we were taught how to use the flip camcorders provided by school, this was easy to use and didn't require much skill. So, when it came to filming our own film opening, we had two cameras in mind- Fujifilm S2980 or the Mino hd flip video. We experimented with the two and as a group decided to settle with the mino hd flip video, due to the fact that it was easier to use and it was high quality- which gave our film opening a more professional, Hollywood look. An advantage of using the flip camera was that it was easily adjustable on a tripod- using the tripod made our footage more stable, made the camera shots run more smoothly resulting in the footage looking more effective. Also, due to the size of the flip camera compared to the bigger camera, we were able to capture good camera shots and camera angles. To edit our film opening, we used a software that was new to most of us- Final Cut Pro, but with the help of tutorials and experimenting around, we soon got the hang of it. The software was easy to understand as it had a basic layout. One of the main aspects that was good with this programme was that it allowed us to edit our soundtrack by enabling us to increase/fade the tempo, so we could create an ideal soundtrack for our opening. We learnt how to capture clips, drag and drop them on the time line, arrange them, cut them and also add effects, sound and transitions. Editing took time and effort, we also learnt how to add transitions, effects, sound and fades. Adding transitions and fades to our piece of work made it look more professional and our movie ran more smoothly, helping us to achieve a higher grade. We used an Apple Mac to do all the eidting and special effects for our sequence. It already had final cut pro installed which came to our benefit. This enabled us to crop the uneeded frames, which allowed our sequence to flow smoothly. Using a Mac was new to some of us so it did take some time getting used to, but we overcame this barrier by practising during school hours.
During the creation of our media product, a opening sequence, we learnt a great deal about technologies and they helped and improved our media product. Whilst filming the preliminary and other past projects, we were taught how to use the flip camcorders provided by school, this was easy to use and didn't require much skill. So, when it came to filming our own film opening, we had two cameras in mind- Fujifilm S2980 or the Mino hd flip video. We experimented with the two and as a group decided to settle with the mino hd flip video, due to the fact that it was easier to use and it was high quality- which gave our film opening a more professional, Hollywood look. An advantage of using the flip camera was that it was easily adjustable on a tripod- using the tripod made our footage more stable, made the camera shots run more smoothly resulting in the footage looking more effective. Also, due to the size of the flip camera compared to the bigger camera, we were able to capture good camera shots and camera angles. To edit our film opening, we used a software that was new to most of us- Final Cut Pro, but with the help of tutorials and experimenting around, we soon got the hang of it. The software was easy to understand as it had a basic layout. One of the main aspects that was good with this programme was that it allowed us to edit our soundtrack by enabling us to increase/fade the tempo, so we could create an ideal soundtrack for our opening. We learnt how to capture clips, drag and drop them on the time line, arrange them, cut them and also add effects, sound and transitions. Editing took time and effort, we also learnt how to add transitions, effects, sound and fades. Adding transitions and fades to our piece of work made it look more professional and our movie ran more smoothly, helping us to achieve a higher grade. We used an Apple Mac to do all the eidting and special effects for our sequence. It already had final cut pro installed which came to our benefit. This enabled us to crop the uneeded frames, which allowed our sequence to flow smoothly. Using a Mac was new to some of us so it did take some time getting used to, but we overcame this barrier by practising during school hours.
7. Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to the full product?
Looking back on the preliminary, we learnt various new techniques and skills which helped us create our film opening. Our preliminary was simple and consisted of the three elements that we were taught- 180° angle, Match On Action and Shot, Reverse, Shot. These three techniques were beneficial to us as we could then show off our new skills through our film opening. We had no prior knowledge to the editing software final cut pro and the video camera. The shot types used in the preliminary were pretty basic and bland, but taught us how to make scenes flows and look effective. However in our final sequence, we ensured that all types of skills were used to make our film opening look as professional as possible. This quick run through of using a video camera and creating and editing a short sequence gave us an insight of how we would have to present our own film, and also gave us enough practise to feel confident in producing the film opening. We felt as a group, the progression we made in editing was the largest, due to the fact that it made the simplest of scenes look more effective. When we had learnt about the art of continuity, we had kept in mind the actor's body position, their points in dioalogue and their change in position. This helped us to make sure we had continuity throughot preliminary task and then in the end, will help us with the final product. Another thing we learnt during the preliminary was the different types of camera shots and angle, which was beneficial to us as it helped us use a range in our film opening. Also, we had to keep in mind of the 180 degree rule and make sure that we didn't break it when showing an actor talking or in action. We also learnt continuity by editing, in order to make our shots flow within scenes, we had to make sure that each of our shots matched our editing. Although it would get difficult when we would edit, as it would get tricky to match up the shots exactly, and when we did watch it back, we realised that it would be off by a couple of split-seconds. This would be fixed by either extending or shortening the clip, to match the action. We had faced a couple of challenges, one being where we had to film the second part of our opening on a different day to filming the beginning, we would then face the difficulty of keeping match on action due to the clothes mise-en-scene and the availably of the actors. Overall we tried to use the skills learnt in the prelim in our film opening, and watching back our final product shows off how it flowed brilliantly.
Looking back on the preliminary, we learnt various new techniques and skills which helped us create our film opening. Our preliminary was simple and consisted of the three elements that we were taught- 180° angle, Match On Action and Shot, Reverse, Shot. These three techniques were beneficial to us as we could then show off our new skills through our film opening. We had no prior knowledge to the editing software final cut pro and the video camera. The shot types used in the preliminary were pretty basic and bland, but taught us how to make scenes flows and look effective. However in our final sequence, we ensured that all types of skills were used to make our film opening look as professional as possible. This quick run through of using a video camera and creating and editing a short sequence gave us an insight of how we would have to present our own film, and also gave us enough practise to feel confident in producing the film opening. We felt as a group, the progression we made in editing was the largest, due to the fact that it made the simplest of scenes look more effective. When we had learnt about the art of continuity, we had kept in mind the actor's body position, their points in dioalogue and their change in position. This helped us to make sure we had continuity throughot preliminary task and then in the end, will help us with the final product. Another thing we learnt during the preliminary was the different types of camera shots and angle, which was beneficial to us as it helped us use a range in our film opening. Also, we had to keep in mind of the 180 degree rule and make sure that we didn't break it when showing an actor talking or in action. We also learnt continuity by editing, in order to make our shots flow within scenes, we had to make sure that each of our shots matched our editing. Although it would get difficult when we would edit, as it would get tricky to match up the shots exactly, and when we did watch it back, we realised that it would be off by a couple of split-seconds. This would be fixed by either extending or shortening the clip, to match the action. We had faced a couple of challenges, one being where we had to film the second part of our opening on a different day to filming the beginning, we would then face the difficulty of keeping match on action due to the clothes mise-en-scene and the availably of the actors. Overall we tried to use the skills learnt in the prelim in our film opening, and watching back our final product shows off how it flowed brilliantly.